Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Thursday February 10, 2005 @04:38PM
from the so-many-jokes-so-little-time dept.

Weird_Hock writes "This story from Reuters
tells about the joint effort from Pfizer and Microsoft to go after illegal sellers of Viagra. Pfizer is going after the sellers and Microsoft after the spammers. Looks like they're targeting both sides of the money chain."

I figure that I'll let MS spend their money on going after the spammers - after all, the enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, and is useful to me.

I get a nice auto-ack from MS with a tracking number for each report. What does that mean? That I get a nice auto-ack from MS with a tracking number - I have no way of knowing for sure that they do anything with the reports.

But hey, it if nukes a spammer and/or costs MS money, then it's worth it.

I forward them the lottery scams that refer to domains registered on their "MSN Personal domains" service.They do not seem to care.

Interestingly enough, the names shifted from (variations on) cashchangeukltd.org, which is just the name of a fraudulent organization, to (variations on) ms-wordpromo.com, which could be seen as a trademark violation by their triggerhappy lawyers. You know, those that went after names like mikerowesoft.com because it was too much like a trademark they registered.

But despite several reports, nothing seems to happen. They just go on facilitating fraud, and even do so under their own trademarked names.

I start to believe that there is nothing more than a tracking number generator behind those reporting addresses, and the big Microsoft company is not interested in abuse of its trademarks.

I feel very sad for you that you consider MS 'Your enemy'. I don't like them either, but I don't attribute them that much power. They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted. You also give them power over you by the same act.

I feel very sad for you that you consider MS 'Your enemy'. I don't like them either, but I don't attribute them that much power. They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted. You also give them power over you by the same act.

Exactly what would it take for you to consider their actions with malice? Perhaps an upheld conviction of abusing their OS monopoly to move into other areas and take out other companies illegally? How about their secret agreements with OEMs in the past that required one copy of Windows sold per CPU, whether the OS left the building on the PC or not? I could go on listing more, but at this point in time it's pointless to just say it's business as usual and without malice. The courts have found MS to have broken anti-trust law, and it was upheld on appeal. Companies don't go around breaking laws, then pulling the type of defense strategies MS did without malice. They do that when they did it intentionally.

But frankly your argument's silly anyway. I consider MS my enemy. I consider the RIAA and MPAA member companies my enemy. I consider most of the BSA companies my enemy, and I consider the OPEC members to be enemies. Why? Their goal, even if they aren't breaking laws, is to make money at all costs. If that cost is my freedoms (RIAA/MPAA and the congresscritters they own), my quality of life, or what else, so be it, they don't care as long as they make money. They're in business to make money from me even if I fully wish to not pay them a damned cent. I don't willingly, but my tax dollars keep going to them (at the least to pay the damn congresscritters they've bought who represent the companies first and the real people last). I consider that enemy worthy, and worth fighting.

Power over me? They already have power over you, me and all of us. Hell just look at the litany of bills presented, along with the ones that made it into law. You can't tell me things like the DMCA haven't already given them enormous power over each and every one of us. Companies keep proving they're willing to abuse it any way they see fit. Want to stifle research into security flaws? Already been done, will happen again. Want to try and make sure no one can sell generic parts for your equipment? Already being done, look at the printer manufacturers.

Sorry, but I don't have to do a damned thing for them to have power over me. They already do, and that's another part of why I consider them my enemies. If you don/t, well congrats on enjoying all those laws and restrictions they've placed on you. I'll be fighting them tooth and nail for the existing ones and future ones while you enjoy having your rights and freedoms removed. Personally I want mine back.

Please explain what laws/restrictions they've put upon me. I don't like the crap that spews out of Holywood, so I don't care if I can download movies or not. I don't like pop music, so I don't care if I can download songs or not. I use various OS'es (Windows, *nix, OS X), so I'm hardly a prisoner of any monopoly.

I'll come out of lurking to just comment on this one...
I don't like pop music, so I don't care if I can download songs or not. I use various OS'es (Windows, *nix, OS X), so I'm hardly a prisoner of any monopoly.
So you don't like pop music, what's stoping you downloading what you do like? You use various OS'es, do you enjoy not being able to edit images in Photoshop on *nix? Not getting the latest games (if at all) on OS X? Do you enjoy trying to configure a WinModem to run on *nix?
Ah well, it's your c

They aren't an enemy; they are a company out to make money. By calling them the enemy you ascribe malice to them that is unwarranted.

I think they do Maliciosly attack any technology that threatens thier OS monopoly. They try to keep Web standards to "IE only" thus forcing Web Surfers to have Windows. They try to make MS Office the defacto standard in bussiness thus forcing most bussiness machines to have Windows. They are trying to make windows audio/vidio formats the future "standard" with WMP thus fo

They create very big market for powerful 32-bit PC. If anybody still use 8-bit CP/M machines, I doubd that I could afford dual PIV with 1Gb RAM at home to run real OS on it. It seems good. But I suspect that i could be just as happy with some 300Mhz UltraSparc.

They create potential market for software I write. But really I make my living from market where computers was used long before PC era.

Now I have to settle for my increase in girth, length and volume, since they will also go for v1agra and v!agra

Anyhow - if the big dogs are moving now - after the can-spam-act, it's interesting what kind of stable equilibruum the next generation spam will be. It won't go away - It'll just reach the next stage.

On the bottom of the first page are the stock qoutes von Pfizer and Microsoft. There is a horizontal movement of Pfizer and a slight downward movement of Microsoft. What does that suggest about the markets expectation of future distribution of vi4gra?

It has been reported that market demand forPfizer's "Viagra" AD prescription has sagged.Pfizer stock price plummets 05 percent.Analysts conjecture that demand has stiffenedfor the two competing AD prescription brands.Stay tuned for more news...

is it just me or does it seem like microsoft and pfizer are going to be mutualy beneficial out of this one. pfizer's profits get to go back up and microsoft gets a ton of viagra. That should make the programmers happy.:)

Pfizer and Microsoft announced today that they had stiffened their resolve to go after sellers of counterfeit Viagra(r). They realized such spams were peaking, and they knew they had to harden the course for such counterfeiters.

"These guys think they can keep profits rising endlessly," complained a Pfizer spokesperson. "They are really beginning to poke us in the eye with their nonsense. We are a big company, and Viagra has helped up grow considerably. We won't let these crooks cut our profits off prematurely."

... Microsoft announce that they are partnering with Pfizer to produce their own generic brand name of Viagra.

Critics point out that the first version of any product from Microsoft never stays up for long, and that users should wait for the second release, unless they are willing to accept permanent loss of data assets.

We get average of at least one Washington Mutual phishing email per day and have absolutely no affiliation with the company. Its definitely the most popular phishing target (more popular than paypal or ebay in our little back water of the IP space). I don't know if WaMu is especially phish-easy, but they seem to be a strong target.

If you have anything to do at all the administration of your mail server then I would suggest looking into greylisting [greylisting.org]. Has helped tremendously with the volume of spam I receive to the server I admin because it forces spammers to use a single point to send spam from (a point which you can identify).

Also ClamAV [clamav.net] can be used to scan incoming email on the server side and has definitions for many phishing attacks as well as worms and viruses.

I don't know if WaMu is especially phish-easy, but they seem to be a strong target.

I think they don't care or at least react on them as quickly as other banks is why. I forward all phishing attacks to the companies involved so they can at least do damage control, and of them WaMu has no auto response, and when I do get a response it's 3-4 days later, well past the point of time where they could have done anything. (And it's a canned thank you for letting us know response, not even a "yes this was not

I really don't think it's going to change much. Let them try. Most of the spammers are outside the US. Pfizer might be a little more lucky.
It sounds kinda useful, but in the end it probably won't change much to the 500+ spam messages I get a day.

If I'd never heard of Viagra before, I'd have lumped it in along with phen-phen, ephedra, and laetrile as the quack medicines I'd historically been getting spams for: that is, substances of questionable efficacy, safety, and/or legality.

Quickly now, (off the top of your head, without googling and without being a pharmacist), which of the following - Effexor, Paxil, Viagra, Cialis, Phenteramine, Valium, Xanax, Soma, Lipitor, Zyban, Zantrex, Xenical, Meridia and Fioricet - are "real" medicines (that is, which have been approved by FDA for the treatment of medical conditions), and which are fake/quack/banned?

If you get even one false-positive (that is, a "real" drug that a reasonable person dismiss es as "quacky" due to its prevalence in spam), I'd say the manufacturer of that drug has a prima facie case for trademark dilution against every spammer who spammed for it.

V1@gr4, C|al1$, 0xycOnt1n and the rest of those (the real ones) are PRESCRIPTION drugs - "Controlled Substances" - the distribution of which (without proper licensing & documentation) is a Big Federal Felony(tm). Anyone "selling" any of those things on the Internet is selling - at best - fakes, and is more likely a simple fraud.

Even if they're doing it from offshore, selling the REAL stuff (particularly narcotics like Oxyc0d0ne) is a big enough crime (in the US) to obtain action from Interpol resulting in extradition of the offenders. These are scams, every bit as much as Muhammed Al-Quedah, who wants to cut you in on the $22e6 which he skimmed out of Sadam's treasury, and now needs your (confidential) help to get it out of the Netherlands.

What needs to happen is they need to use existing laws to bust a few of these guys for "offering drugs to children within 100 yards of a school" and send them to jail for 100 years or whatever the law allows. The rules are on the books and they broke the law. Now make an example of them.

Lipitor is a real medicine which should be banned. It causes memory loss, though the makers deny it. The makers of Statin drugs bribed the FDA head with speaking engagements and he lowered the 'safe' levels of cholesterol to get more people on the drug.

Since I had moderator points, I wanted to read all the crap that gets posted and see if there was anything that needed to be modded up. I was very dissapointed to hardly see *anything* relevant to the topic other than lame jokes.

I think that this will be good for users. Both companies have something to gain by there being less spam, and thus it will help both companies bottom lines to get rid of it.

What I hope they *don't* do (since both companies are large) is throw money at the problem and hope it gets fixed.

I know we have discussed this before, but shouldn't someone go after Microsoft for a very insecure OS that happens to be a petri-dish for spamzombies everywhere? Isn't it negligent behaviour? It would be a lot easier for law enforcement if you could really say where a message originated instead of discovering that the spammer address is from an old lady who never updated her machine since her grandson installed it.

When taking over IT on a small advertising agency with lots of Macs at the creative dept and

Surely selling prescription drugs in any kind of a shady manner (phony perscriptions, no prescriptions, not the drug advertised, etc) across state lines is a serious Federal offense, at least as serious as this drug crime [usdoj.gov] is and should warrant its own Federal task force, RICO prosecutions, and the like.

I wonder why we haven't seen this and it takes MS/Pfizer joining forces to make an issue out of it. Does this make any sense?